Current weather

Lakeside safety Rashad Roundtree continues to garner plenty of attention heading into his senior campaign on the gridiron. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound safety was recently named to the Class AAAAA Pre-Season All-State Team by Maxprep’s Georgia High School Football Daily. Roundtree was the only Columbia County player named to the team.

He also could become the first Columbia County player to ever be named to the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Super 11. The AJC, in conjunction with Georgia High School Football Daily, will unveil this year’s “Super 11” on Friday.

“Tiger’s History” – Apparently they did not remember that he is the reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year. Reigning – as in, he won the award last year. That’s right. In 2013 Tiger Woods won five PGA Tour events. No other player on tour won more than two. So, please do not make it out like Woods has not won in a decade.

Former Lakeside golfer Kelby Burton was at it again last week in Macon at the 2014 Georgia State Amateur Championship.

By at it again, I mean playing his best in a big event. Burton, the son of former Augusta Lynx head coach Jim Burton, began to earn his reputation as a great clutch performer as a senior at Lakeside High School in 2010. He led the Panthers to the AAAA state title by firing a -5 under 67 to take home Low Medalist honors.

Georgia Regents University’s new head baseball coach had a challenging first season. The Jags finished the season 19-31 overall and 11-20 in the Peach Belt Conference. Jason Eller, who came in after a lengthy stint as an assistant coach at the University of Georgia, knew a couple of things when he was announced as GRU’s new coach. First, this was not going to be a one year turnaround. Secondly, he better spend plenty of time recruiting the local area.

Over the past few months I have dedicated several columns to the meteoric rise up the college football recruiting boards of Lakeside’s Rashad Roundtree and Augusta Christian’s Zach Giella.

Giella has verbally committed to Clemson and Roundtree has his choice of just about every major program in the country, with Georgia, Auburn, Duke, Ohio State and Florida State among his leaders. While the attention given to Roundtree and Giella was definitely warranted, there are several other Columbia County athletes who will get plenty of attention from recruiters this fall.

2014 was a strange year in Columbia County. Offense seemed to be way down, besides Greenbrier the won/loss record in the county was below our county’s high standards, and a couple of the county’s most gifted players did not finish the season due to injury or off field issues.

USC Aiken and Georgia Regents University have completed their 2014 baseball seasons. The Pacers had a solid season, finishing 36-17 overall and 20-10 in the extremely difficult Peach Belt Athletic Conference. For GRU, the first season under new coach Jason Eller was a struggle. The Jags finished 19-31 overall and 11-20 in Peach Belt play.

That’s what is says when you go to the Greenbrier High School’s baseball Web page.

I felt it was the perfect way to describe what happened in 2014 with Greenbrier’s young team. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Everyone had Evans penciled in as the team to beat in the subregion and Greenbrier was expected to battle for the third or fourth playoff spot.